18 



THE OOLOGIST 



to it, until it flew away and a second bird 

 took its place. Soon this bii'd was relieved 

 by the bird first seen. Being now more 

 interested I moved up where I could better 

 observe their movements, and saw that the 

 birds were Titmice ; and also that they were 

 at work enlarging the hole. Having pre- 

 vious to this found them nesting in crevices 

 and places either formed by nature or once 

 used by other birds, I was somewhat puz- 

 zled at this new freak and at this time in 

 the year, too. On visiting the place a week 

 later, I saw nothing of the birds, but they 

 had gone down into the stump some three 

 inches. I thought, as I saw them at work 

 at first, that it was a task no birds of the 

 Picus family would covet, and that they 

 had given it up as a bad job. On my re- 

 turn to the place next spring to see if some 

 other bird had taken possession, I was not 

 a little surprised at seeing them both at 

 ■work again. They carried the hole down 

 some eight inches and lined the sides with 

 wool, mulleu from plants, hairs and other 

 substances that they commonly make use 

 of. They laid six eggs, which I have in 

 my collection. I think that they were in- 

 tending to occupy the nest a second time, 

 as they had not deserted the stump some 

 five days later. In the meantime some 

 one cut down the stump and that stopped 

 further proceedings. I have seen the Fish 

 Hawk repairing .his nest in the fall, but no 

 other species has passed under my notice. 

 From the above observations I draw the 

 following conclusions : 1st, that they do 

 excavate for their own nest ; 2d, that they 

 make provision one year for the next, even 

 if only in exceptional cases. 



Oblogical Notes for September. 



Last year a number of CoUurio horealis 

 nested here. This year I did not see a sin- 

 gle specimen. June 21 shot two young 

 birds of C. ludovicianus and one adult 

 male, besides taking another female with 

 nest and four eggs, which were fresh and 

 of second set. At this place, the season 



has been the poorest for collecting eggs that 

 I have met in six or seven years. 



D. D. "Stone, Osweyo, N. Y. 



I DISCOVERED a Towhee nesting off the 

 ground this last spring. 1 have the nest 

 and eggs in my collection. Did anything 

 similar of tliis species ever come under your 

 notice? B. J. Peckham, Westerly, B. I. 



[Not an imcommon occurrence. Vide 

 pp. 27, 43, Vol. IV. of this journal.— Ed.] 





D. D. Stone, Oswego, N. Y. 



A gentleman who has had leisure to 

 observe the every-day life of the House 

 Sparrow has noticed that they make provis- 

 ion for a future nest by storing materials in 

 trees. The bulky masses of sticks, straws 

 and twine which look so much like great 

 nests, he says they put together for a sort 

 of store-house, to which they go when in 

 want of building materials. He came to 

 this conclusion, because, on several occa- 

 sions the Sparrows who had placed twigs 

 in a certain tree carried them away to a 

 box for their nest. 



